Something tells me it's all happening...

[shewhomust]

Our morning in Budapest's Jewish quarter was wonderful, but very intense, and we decided to take the metro out to the City Park, at the far end of Andrassy, and find somewhere there to have lunch.

We weren't intending to go to Gundel - it has the reputation of the best restaurant in the city, and sounded very grand, and rather intimidating. But since we were so close, we'd just stroll along and look: and what we saw was that they offered a very tourist friendly lunch menu, and that we could eat outside on the terrace, and oh, well, why not?

This turned out to be a good decision: we enjoyed the sunshine, and the being waited on by charming and helpful men in the full rig of black suit and long white apron. We enjoyed the food and the wine, too. By the coffee, we were feeling extremely mellow.

It just so happens that to get to Gundel from the park, you walk past the zoo. The zoo was not on my list of things to see; it would not have occurred to me to visit the zoo; if I've ever been to a zoo before, I don't remember it. But as we had walked past, there were tantalising glimpses of blue domes and grey elephants (real ones), and we were, as I say, feeling very mellow, and the entrance to the zoo was very inviting - and our Budapest card took us in for free: for whatever reason, we went to the zoo.

Which turned out to be another good decision. I'm ambivalent about zoos - some animals do not look happy in captivity, and there is no pleasure to be had watching them. I walked fairly rapidly past the bald eagle. But that's a long way short of a reasoned rejection of all the good work - the education, the breeding programmes - that zoos undeniably do. This last afternoon of our holiday was not about resolving that debate, it was just a walk around a pleasant park, with some interesting things to look at - camels! fluffy camels! who knew camels were fluffy? - a wallaby cowering in the back of its shelter, while a flock of pigeons crowded round its feeding dish - pelicans (big, fierce-looking pelicans) - seals and penguins (with a viewing space which allowed you to watch from below water level while penguins streaked past at great speed... But by and large these were known pleasures. Three things were completely unexpected:

• And the first was a bird whose name I never learned: large, long-legged, with an improbable crest, pacing up and down its enclosure on those long legs, turning round each time with an odd little jump, and doing something - using a tool of some sort to hit something I couldn't quite see on the ground, with a metallic tapping noise. There's an unsatisfactory description if ever there was one.



• The Lesser Panda looks more like a raccoon than a panda, trundled obligingly around its tree house, and is quite the cutest furry beast ever.


• The Elephant House, newly renovated, is an art nouveau gem. The exterior is all turquoise tiled domes and sculpted elephants, while the interior of the dome is decorated with an elegant black and white elephant motif - which repeats in the detailing of the chandelier. The elephants don't seem too impressed, but it's probably quite hard to impress an elephant...

And that's the last post of the holiday: we now return you to our scheduled programme.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

"The Lesser Panda looks more like a raccoon than a panda, trundled obligingly around its tree house, and is quite the cutest furry beast ever."

...With the exception of certain cute & furry beasts we know, obviously. But that's a Red Panda to you and me. Would you like to be known as the Lesser anything? (Well, there's Anton Lesser, granted, but him aside...)

[sovay]

And that's the last post of the holiday: we now return you to our scheduled programme.

The holiday posts have been amazing. Thank you!

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

You mean... no pictures of elephants!?! Candy won't be pleased.

Having said that, I've loved all the holiday posts and I'm looking forward to when I can go through it all again with you in person.